Hey, hey. How are you?

I’m good. How are you?

I am doing awesome and I just want to tell you it is an honor and a pleasure to be here. It feels like that Meltdown in the Desert event was like two weeks ago.

It does.

Can’t believe it was like two years ago.

Yeah.

But man, when you were up there on stage talking, I was just absolutely blown away and knew that I wanted to get involved in any way that possibly could with the book. I’ve been really looking forward to having our conversation on this podcast.

Me too, and thank you so much for what you’ve done for me. My book is out and I was really, really excited for it. So thank you for everything you’ve done to support me.

Absolutely, it’s an honor.

You have so many superpowers, but can you tell our guests, our people listening what some of your superpowers are?

I think one of my superpowers that is probably pretty unique is my ability to operate at a high level in the face of uncertainty. Uncertainty can be paralyzing to a lot of people and when you don’t know what to do, you end up doing nothing. I think as I look throughout my career and really look at the last five years and the upward growth of my career as it’s taken off, I really can look back to specific moments where things were extremely uncertain and my ability to just go out and put in the work, not knowing what would happen ultimately, is what I believe got me to where I am today. I think that that’s a huge, huge encouragement to those that are out there and listening to this that, “Hey, if you don’t know exactly how things are going to play out, if you don’t know exactly the right way to do what you’re supposed to do, just do something, just work hard and good things will happen.” So I think that’s probably the one of the biggest superpowers that I have

That’s a really good superpower to have.

Yeah.

Because some people, it’s scary to be uncertain-

It is.

And it’s scary to not know what’s going to happen or not be able to see, I call it like not being able to see the light in the dark tunnel.

Yeah.

It’s really cool and some people are able to see it and not get afraid of it.

Yeah. I think the biggest thing is action creates certainty. So when you’re in those uncertain situations where you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, the only way that that light is going to become clear, the only way you’re going to find that path to get on is through action. It’s through doing something and it’s in that process of progress that ultimately, you take that one step and the next step becomes a little bit clearer. You take the next step and the next five steps become clear. The next thing you know, the path is completely laid out in front of you, but it’s only by your willingness to do the work and not just sit and dwell on thinking about it and letting that fear really trap you.

I agree. It’s really important to have that and it’s really important to not let your fear take over because when it does, that’s when the uncertainty starts happening even more.

Absolutely.

What would you say to someone who’s maybe not really sure what a leader is or maybe not sure how big can be one?

So the first thing I think that it’s important to understand is that everyone is a leader because at the very, very basis, you are leading yourself. If there’s anyone around you, it could be family, it could be friends, it could be your neighbor, it could be someone in your class that you are leading and the primary way you’re leading in those examples is leading by example. People are watching what you’re doing. The most immediate way to become a leader is by doing the right things. Other people around you are going to take notice. They’re going to see you as a leader because when they observe your behavior, they can see that, “Hey, this person is making the right decisions. This person is doing good things. This person’s trying really hard.” Even if you’re doing the wrong things, but you’re trying really hard, people are going to take notice of that.

So for me, my primary leadership trait is leading by example. It just makes me uncomfortable to ask anybody to do something that I’m not either willing to do myself or I’m not currently doing myself. I think so many people, they feel like they get to a point in, probably business, but also in life that they’re basing a lot of their leadership on past credibility, on things that they’ve done years ago. But to me, it’s all about current credibility, like what are you doing today? Is that an example for those around you, those that are following you of what they need to be doing. Yeah, I think it’s the realization that you are a leader hands down, that it’s not a question of if you are, it’s that you 100% are a leader and now that you know that, you have to start acting like one.

I agree. That’s really good advice because I think everyone is a leader, but they just have to take the steps towards making it happen. It can be scary for some people to be a leader-

Yeah.

Because sometimes you don’t want to lead people, but being able to look and see it, you’re able to see the amazing gift that it is. It’s really cool when people don’t get afraid about it.

Yeah. Because I think the fear comes from the responsibility that comes from being a leader. I think it’s really important for people not to look at that responsibility as a negative thing. It’s not a burden of responsibility and it’s honestly, a privilege to be responsible. To be in a position where other people are looking to you for answers or looking to you for guidance or looking to you at as how are they doing things to model their behavior after, that is an honor and a privilege to have that responsibility. I think if we kind of change our perspective on how we look at it, then it’s something actually to be really excited about and not scared of.

Yeah, I agree. It’s really cool because everyone has a chance to be a leader and everybody is a leader. It’s just now, don’t be afraid of it and take action.

Absolutely.

We do have to start wrapping up for the break. Do you have any kind of closing, maybe words about being the leader kind of before we get into it?

I think what I would say to close out the subject of leadership is that leadership takes work and you have to constantly be improving yourself and working on yourself to really be able to make an impact on others. In order to take responsibility for anybody else, you have to take responsibility of with your own life. That means you have to constantly be growing and constantly be learning and constantly be trying new things and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, so that other people can lead by your example, that you can have experience that you can share with them and do you can always be moving forward and having progress. That’s ultimately progress, is where happiness comes from. So to be a happy leader, like we don’t all just want to be leaders, we want to be happy leaders, and that happiness is going to come from the progress of continuing to grow and learn.

That’s really good advice. Thank you for that.

Absolutely.

We do have a quick break. So will you tell our listeners where they can find out more about you?

On all the social media platforms, it’s @TylerJackHarris, or they can go to TylerJackHarris.com.

Awesome. Definitely go check him out because Tyler is so, so amazing. We’ve been talking to Tyler Harris about how to be a leader. We’ll be right back after the break.